When: 10:45 a.m., Monday - Friday

Where: Amphitheater

Each weekday during the Chautauqua season (June 22–Aug. 25, 2013) at 10:45 a.m., the Amphitheater stage becomes a platform for distinguished scientists, authors, educators and other experts in such fields as national and international affairs, arts and humanities, business and the environment. Ideas and opinions are exchanged in an open, challenging atmosphere, and Chautauqua's knowledgeable audiences have the opportunity to participate in question-and-answer sessions at the conclusion of the lectures.

2014 Lecture Platform Themes

2013 Morning Lecture Platform Themes

Updated February 28, 2013

Week One — June 23–29

Our Elegant Universe

Chautauqua opens its 2013 Season with an exploration into the wonders of the cosmos, our understanding of space and time, and the most basic questions of existence. Columbia University theoretical physicist Brian Greene, author of The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, opens the week and season with an introduction to superstring theory and how it shapes our understanding of the universe. On Tuesday, NASA Ames astrophysicist Natalie Batalha will share findings from the Kepler Mission, where she is mission scientist, and its importance to NASA, the scientific community, and humankind. Chautauqua favorite Kobie Boykins, an engineer with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, returns to speak Thursday on the immediate and distant future of unmanned space exploration. Friday’s address features Jennifer Wiseman, director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion, and NASA’s senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, who will share the wonder and awe in space, the spiritual and existential questions it inspires and the relationship between science and faith. More →

Week Two — June 30–July 6

The Next Greatest Generation

In a week of Fourth of July family gatherings, we explore the values, work and stories of the young and socially aware. Google[x] vice president Megan Smith speaks Monday with examples of a generation of “digital natives” moving faster together, and from all over the world. On Tuesday, Paula Kahumbu, the Nairobi-based executive director of WildlifeDirect, will share her work in conservation and using technology to ensure other conservationists and their projects receive attention and support. Former Gallup senior research adviser Dalia Mogahed, who has led analysis of surveys of Muslims worldwide, speaks Wednesday on the role of young people in the Arab Spring, and the state and future of interfaith and intrafaith relations as they gain influence. For Thursday, Chris Hayes, host of “All In” on MSNBC and editor-at-large for The Nation, will address how young people affect policy and effect change. Friday features a panel discussion, the centerpiece of the week, featuring all the lecturers in the collaborative style characteristic of their cohort. More →

Week Three — July 7–13

America, 1863

As our country continues its sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War, Chautauqua presents a weeklong series of lectures examining the war’s legacy in the context of a most pivotal year in United States history. Catherine Clinton, chair in U.S. history at Queen’s University Belfast and a consultant on Stephen Spielberg’s 2012 film “Lincoln,” will open the week Monday with a lecture setting the scene of America in 1863 politically, culturally and geographically. Time magazine editor-at-large David Von Drehle, author of Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year, speaks Tuesday on the legacy of our 16th president. Gary W. Gallagher, a Civil War military historian and professor at the University of Virginia, delivers Wednesday’s address on the gritty details of how this war was fought. Harvard professor of American legal history Annette Gordon-Reed, author of Andrew Johnson, will speak Thursday on the legacy of the Emancipation Proclamation and the state of the abolitionist movement. Joan Waugh, professor of history at UCLA, ends the week with a Friday lecture on how the events of 1863 and the actions of a forward-thinking Union still inform our politics and culture today. More →

Week Four — July 14–20

Markets, Morals and the Social Contract

Informed by What Money Can’t Buy, a new book by frequent Chautauqua collaborator Michael J. Sandel, lectures this week explore the role of markets in all spheres of American life and consider competing views on the proper balance of public and private sectors, and social obligation and fiscal sustainability. Sandel, a Harvard ethicist and philosophy professor, lectures Monday, arguing that America has drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks returns Tuesday to lecture on the state of our country’s social contract and its effect on culture and family life. Wednesday’s lecture will feature former FEC chairman Trevor Potter, founding president of the Campaign Legal Center and general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, speaking on how market forces affect the political process. George Packer, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of the forthcoming The Unwinding, on Thursday will portray economic shifts through the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and income levels. To close Week Four, Alan Schwartz, executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners, will provide his views Friday on the role of business and capital in the evolving American economy, in conversation with New York Times contributing writer Diana B. Henriques. More →

Week Five — July 21–27

The Pursuit of Happiness

What is happiness and why, as Jefferson penned in the Declaration of Independence, is it one of our inalienable rights to pursue it? To help answer these questions, on Monday, classicist and former Cornell president Hunter Rawlings will provide his interpretation of the classical roots of happiness, followed by a brief address by young Thomas Jefferson (Colonial Williamsburg’s Bill Barker) that explains his meaning of the concept. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, will provide remarks Tuesday happiness and community in modern American life based on his scholarship on social capital, diversity, religion and democracy. Charles Murray, author of Coming Apart and The Bell Curve, will speak specifically to happiness and social class on Wednesday. Yale professor of psychiatry, neurobiology and pharmacology Marina R. Picciotto will address the effect of happiness on our brains, bodies and behavior and address how drugs, abuse and addiction affect the pursuit of happiness and pleasure. To close the week on Friday, Paula A. Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, will lecture on community as a source of deeper happiness, and her role as leader of an institution that attempts to bridge the demographic and political gaps that divide Americans. More →

Week Six — July 28–Aug. 3

Crime and Punishment

This week, we focus on the state of the U.S. criminal justice system — what works, what doesn’t, how effective it is and how it compares to others around the world. Monday will feature a special lecture on protrayal of the law in opera, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg combines her two passions. Former Virginia Law dean John C. Jeffries Jr. will provide a philosophical and historical introduction to criminology and criminal justice on Tuesday. Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project, will speak Wednesday on her organization’s work to exonerate the innocent and reform a system responsible for many unjust imprisonments. Wes Moore will review race and the U.S. criminal justice system, based on experiences of his youth and research for his book, The Other Wes Moore, on Thursday. Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, now professor of practice at Harvard Law School, closes the week on Friday with remarks on sentencing law. More →

Week Seven — Aug. 4–10

Diplomacy

Chautauqua focuses on international affairs this week with a series of lectures on the importance and practice of diplomacy. Frequent Chautauqua lecturer R. Nicholas Burns, formerly the third-ranking State Department official, opens the week with an introduction to and history of U.S. diplomatic efforts. Brookings Institution senior fellow Robert Kagan, author of The World America Made, offers remarks on the state of U.S. diplomacy and how the rest of the world relates to us on Tuesday. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland will lecture Wednesday from her experiences as NATO ambassador and in her current capacity, as the State Department’s “ambassador” to the public and the press. The Washington Institute’s Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Obama, closes the week on Friday with stories from the front lines of Middle East policymaking and peace negotiations. More →

Week Eight — Aug. 11–17

Turkey: Model for the Middle East?

Occupying a key geopolitical position at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey has played an essential role in the western world — this week, Chautauqua examines its history, culture, internal and external politics. American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Michael Rubin introduces us to U.S.-Turkey relations on Monday. Ibrahim Kalin, chief adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, will speak Tuesday on his experiences in Turkish government leadership, interfaith relations in Turkey and his scholarship on Turkish perceptions of the West. Award-winning Turkish journalist Nedim Sener will join Reuters columnist David Rohde in a conversation on Wednesday on internal Turkish politics and freedom of expression and the press. On Friday, to finish the week, Kemal Kirişci, director of the Turkey Project at the Brookings Institution's Center on the United States and Europe, will lecture on how Turkey can be held up as an example to the Middle East, and on the state of its relationship with the U.S. and Europe. More →

Week Nine — Aug. 18–24

Health Care: Reform and Innovation

Week Nine is sponsored in part by

As we begin to feel the effects of the Affordable Care Act, we’ll close the 2013 season with a week of lectures exploring the state and the future of health care in the United States. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the nonpartisan Institute of Medicine, will open and introduce the week on Monday with an overview of what reforms will mean for all American health care system stakeholders. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital CEO Steven J. Corwin speaks Tuesday specifically on hospital administration and innovation on the provider side. Thursday's lecture features Christine K. Cassel, outgoing president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and incoming president and CEO of the National Quality Forum, on demographic health and health care disparities, and the setting of national priorities for achieving better outcomes and value for our health care dollar. On Friday, former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Don Berwick closes the week and our season with reasoned consideration of what innovations are scalable, helping contribute to a future where all Americans have access to affordable, effective health care. More →